Theoretical and experimental investigation of a nonlinear compressive-mode energy harvester with high power output under weak excitations

Harvesting ambient vibration energy is a promising method for realizing self-powered autonomous operation for low-power electronic devices. Most energy harvesters developed to date employ bending-beam configurations and work around the resonant points. There are two critical problems that have hindered the widespread adoption of energy harvesters: insufficient power output and narrow working bandwidth. To overcome these problems, we proposed a novel energy harvester, called a high-efficiency compressive-mode piezoelectric energy harvester (HC-PEH). The HC-PEH delicately synthesizes the merits of the force amplification effect of the flexural motion and the dynamic properties of elastic beams, and thus is capable of high power output with wide working bandwidth. In this paper, theoretical and experimental studies were performed on the HC-PEH. Taking nonlinear stiffness, nonlinear damping, and nonlinear piezoelectricity into account, we developed an analytical model that provides comprehensive insight into the nonlinear mechanical and electrical behaviors of the system. The analytical results closely render the experimental data and demonstrate great performance enhancement. In the experiment, a maximum power output of 54.7 mW is generated at 26 Hz under an acceleration of 4.9 m s−2, which is over one order of magnitude higher than other state-of-the-art systems.

[1]  Paul K. Wright,et al.  A piezoelectric vibration based generator for wireless electronics , 2004 .

[2]  D. Inman,et al.  Comparison of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Devices for Recharging Batteries , 2005 .

[3]  Anthony Marin,et al.  Multiple cell configuration electromagnetic vibration energy harvester , 2011 .

[4]  J. Dugundji,et al.  Modeling and experimental verification of proof mass effects on vibration energy harvester performance , 2010 .

[5]  A. F. Arrieta,et al.  Broadband vibration energy harvesting based on cantilevered piezoelectric bi-stable composites , 2013 .

[6]  Daniel J. Inman,et al.  Analytical Modeling and Experimental Verification of the Vibrations of the Zigzag Microstructure for Energy Harvesting , 2011 .

[7]  Saibal Roy,et al.  A micro electromagnetic generator for vibration energy harvesting , 2007 .

[8]  Sang-Gook Kim,et al.  Ultra-wide bandwidth piezoelectric energy harvesting , 2011 .

[9]  Marc Kamlah,et al.  Uniaxial compressive stress dependence of the high-field dielectric and piezoelectric performance of soft PZT piezoceramics , 2004 .

[10]  S. Shahruz.  Design of mechanical band-pass filters for energy scavenging , 2006 .

[11]  D. Inman,et al.  On Mechanical Modeling of Cantilevered Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesters , 2008 .

[12]  Grzegorz Litak,et al.  Non-linear piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting from a vertical cantilever beam with tip mass , 2012 .

[13]  Ping Li,et al.  Modeling, characterization and fabrication of vibration energy harvester using Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D composite transducer , 2009 .

[14]  Gopinath Reddy Penamalli,et al.  An efficient vibration energy harvester with a multi-mode dynamic magnifier , 2011 .

[15]  Jari Juuti,et al.  Energy harvesting with a cymbal type piezoelectric transducer from low frequency compression , 2012, Journal of Electroceramics.

[16]  D. Inman,et al.  Resistive Impedance Matching Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting , 2010 .

[17]  Wenning Di,et al.  Cantilever driving low frequency piezoelectric energy harvester using single crystal material 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 , 2012 .

[18]  Timothy C. Green,et al.  Energy Harvesting From Human and Machine Motion for Wireless Electronic Devices , 2008, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[19]  D. Inman,et al.  Broadband piezoelectric power generation on high-energy orbits of the bistable Duffing oscillator with electromechanical coupling , 2011 .

[20]  B. Mann,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics for broadband energy harvesting: Investigation of a bistable piezoelectric inertial generator , 2010 .

[21]  W. Liao,et al.  On the efficiencies of piezoelectric energy harvesting circuits towards storage device voltages , 2007 .

[22]  I. Kovacic,et al.  Potential benefits of a non-linear stiffness in an energy harvesting device , 2010 .

[23]  I. Kovacic,et al.  The Duffing Equation: Nonlinear Oscillators and their Behaviour , 2011 .

[24]  Michael J. Anderson,et al.  Efficiency of energy conversion for devices containing a piezoelectric component , 2004 .

[25]  Nesbitt W. Hagood,et al.  Modelling of Piezoelectric Actuator Dynamics for Active Structural Control , 1990 .

[26]  Shaorong Xie,et al.  A review of non-contact micro- and nano-printing technologies , 2014 .

[27]  Christopher S. Lynch,et al.  The effect of uniaxial stress on the electro-mechanical response of 8/65/35 PLZT , 1996 .

[28]  Shadrach Roundy,et al.  On the Effectiveness of Vibration-based Energy Harvesting , 2005 .

[29]  Zhong Lin Wang,et al.  Piezoelectric and semiconducting coupled power generating process of a single ZnO belt/wire. A technology for harvesting electricity from the environment. , 2006, Nano letters.

[30]  Daniel J. Inman,et al.  Bandwidth of a Nonlinear Harvester with Optimized Electrical Load , 2013 .

[31]  Yong Zhang,et al.  Investigation of a d15 mode PZT-51 piezoelectric energy harvester with a series connection structure , 2012 .

[32]  D. Markley,et al.  Energy Harvesting Using a Piezoelectric “Cymbal” Transducer in Dynamic Environment , 2004 .

[33]  T.C. Green,et al.  Architectures for vibration-driven micropower generators , 2004, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[34]  S. Baglio,et al.  Improved Energy Harvesting from Wideband Vibrations by Nonlinear Piezoelectric Converters , 2010 .

[35]  Yiannos Manoli,et al.  A closed-loop wide-range tunable mechanical resonator for energy harvesting systems , 2009 .

[36]  Ping Li,et al.  A vibration energy harvester using magnet/piezoelectric composite transducer , 2014 .

[37]  Yang Zhang,et al.  Toward self-tuning adaptive vibration-based microgenerators , 2005, SPIE Micro + Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications.

[38]  Lei Gu,et al.  Low-frequency piezoelectric energy harvesting prototype suitable for the MEMS implementation , 2011, Microelectron. J..

[39]  Kenichi Soga,et al.  A parametrically excited vibration energy harvester , 2014 .

[40]  Chengkuo Lee,et al.  A new energy harvester design for high power output at low frequencies , 2013 .

[41]  Wen-Jong Wu,et al.  Tunable resonant frequency power harvesting devices , 2006, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[42]  Wei-Hsin Liao,et al.  Impedance matching for improving piezoelectric energy harvesting systems , 2010, Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[43]  Mingsen Guo,et al.  A flex-compressive-mode piezoelectric transducer for mechanical vibration/strain energy harvesting , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[44]  S. Beeby,et al.  Energy harvesting vibration sources for microsystems applications , 2006 .

[45]  Yaowen Yang,et al.  A novel two-degrees-of-freedom piezoelectric energy harvester , 2013 .

[46]  L. E. Cross,et al.  Constitutive equations of symmetrical triple layer piezoelectric benders , 1999, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[47]  Sang-Gook Kim,et al.  DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR MEMS-SCALE PIEZOELECTRIC MECHANICAL VIBRATION ENERGY HARVESTERS , 2005 .

[48]  S Priya,et al.  Criterion for material selection in design of bulk piezoelectric energy harvesters , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[49]  Dong Sam Ha,et al.  Electrical modeling of Piezoelectric ceramics for analysis and evaluation of sensory systems , 2008, 2008 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium.